This paper addresses three levels of change in political and educational relations. Level one focuses on educational systems' service functions; level two involves adjustments of educational politics; and level three entails conditions of conflicts about education falling within states' general politics. Politicization refers to conflict expansion; under low politicization conditions, educational systems experience decentralization--a greater dependence upon societal norms than upon governmental intervention. Educational and political relations shift, however, when internal conflicts move beyond education's borders to become national issues--teacher/administrator conflicts in the United States, for example, leading to collective bargaining legislation. A second politicization source stems from states' redefining educational objectives. Further, one can conceptually distinguish internal educational from general state politics to provide process dimensions for comparative analyses of education and politics across different countries. Still, there remains a high correlation between the two. Selected references are included. (KS)